MI vs. Learning Styles

http://web.archive.org/web/20080125051848/http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm

In this article Felder and Soloman define 4 pairs of learning styles: Active and reflective, sensing and intuitive, visual and verbal, and sequential and global.

These styles are similar to Gardner's multiple intelligences (Verbal-Linguistic, Mathematical-Logical, Musical, Visual-Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, Naturalist, and Existential) in that they state that everybody processes information differently and categorizes they way individuals learn best.

Gardner's philosophy is that everyone has intelligence, and that we posess all 9 intelligences in varying degrees. The idea is that as a teacher we should find out what intelligences our students posess and design our lessons around these intelligences.

Felder and Soloman's theory is all about balance. They state that it is not effective to use one style more than another. As teachers we need to teach using a balance between the pairs of styles to be effective.